Explaining the Lib Dem stance in the newsletter, Councillor Dave Ashmore, the city’s environment and community safety boss, wrote: ‘The dockyard has been at the heart of our great city for a very long time.

‘We have already lost shipbuilding here. Enough is enough. This isn’t about party politics, it’s about what is in the best interests of Portsmouth.’

Lib Dem council leader Gerald Vernon-Jackson said he stood by his party’s comments and instead took aim at the city’s two MPs, Stephen Morgan and Penny Mordaunt for ‘backing Plymouth’.

He added: ‘One of the things coming back to me loud and clear is that the Plymouth MPs are very successful at campaigning to get more resources moved to Plymouth and into their naval base. We will continue to fight for Portsmouth.’

Lord West said this was unwise and that it was more strategic to keep the surface fleet split.

He added the newest generation five of budget-price frigates, the Type 31e, should ‘all come to Portsmouth’.

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